If you've ever watched an animal sleep and wondered what they're dreaming about, science has the answers.

So we all know about the carbon cycle, and the water cycle, and maybe even the nitrogen cycle. But new research has figured out there's a salt cycle, too. Problem is, that same research has found that we already broke it. Here's what...

Urban birds like house finches and house sparrows are great at finding materials to repel pests and parasites from their nests. Unfortunately, one of those materials is used cigarette butts.

You would think that without dentists and fluoride mouthwash, early humans would have terrible teeth. But tooth decay depends on access to sugars and starches -- meaning most early humans had decent teeth up until the Agricultural...

On paper, law professor Samar Ali and public affairs strategist Clint Brewer seem to come from very different — and perhaps opposing — backgrounds. But their friendship shows why political polarization in the US isn't as intractable as...

At work, the dreamers often get credit for the big ideas, but they can also sometimes seem untethered to reality to the doers, who are trying to ... get things done. It's when these two types of humans work in harmony that business magic...

It's been about ten years since scientists categorized alpha-gal syndrome, AKA the red meat allergy spread by ticks. But while researchers know more about it, there's a chance that doctors don't.

There's a really interesting idea in anthropology called the grandmother hypothesis, that basically says the reason we have grandmas has to do with what makes us unique as a species. But there's a huge problem with the idea that it's...

The longest-living group of freshwater fish has been discovered... in a desert. Thanks to humans stocking artificial lakes, and to some awesome citizen scientists, we've learned that buffalofish can easily live to a hundred years old.

In a viral story, one researcher claims to be able to double the lifespan of our feline friends by curing chronic kidney disease. We don't know if he can make cats live twice as long, but we do know the science - and the upcoming...

Most trees reach for the sun – but not the weeping willow. Why?

In this collection of classic MinuteEarth videos, we keep score on the winners and losers of the animal kingdom.



0:

00 - Intro

0:10 - Why Only Some Monkey
s Have Awesome...

Every species on Earth has a fingerprint - whether or not they have fingers at all.

While the rest of the world’s megafauna are still foundering in the anthropocene era, these two big animals have used little animal strategies to bounce back. Way back.

It's no secret that cold can help treat a source of pain, like a sprained ankle or even a burn. But new technology might be able to take that principle and apply it /directly/ onto your nerves!

Clearing tropical forests isn't just dangerous to the natural world — it's also a threat to human health and wellbeing, says physician Neil Vora. Tracing how environmental devastation led to deadly epidemics like Ebola, he presents three...

Today, Jessi and Squeaks learn about some common (and maybe even spooky) ingredients used to make candy, including what might be the most famous Halloween candy of them: Candy Corn!



Second Grade Next Generation...

Tuna are big, fast-swimming ocean fish. They're hardly the natural prey of cats, whose ancestors evolved in the desert. Yet a study of taste receptors in cats shows that they're predisposed to LOVE tuna.<br/>

Being infected with a parasite is bad, right? So why are wolves in Yellowstone National Park infected with Toxoplasma gondii some of the most successful individuals<br/>

Explore an intro to genetic engineering with The Amoeba Sisters. This video provides a general definition, introduces some biotechnology tools that can be used in genetic engineering, and discusses some related vocabulary (such as...

Is it possible that life on earth began with an out of this world rock buffet?

Do our modern horses descend from just one domesticated population, or did it happen many times, in many places? Answering these questions has been tricky, as we’ve needed to bring together evidence from art, archaeology, and ancient...

In his essay “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics”, the physicist Eugine Wigner said that “the enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is something bordering on the mysterious”. This statement was inspired by...

From our deepest origins in Africa all the way to the Americas, by looking at the fossils and archaeological materials we have been able to trace the path our ancestors took during the short window of time when we took over the world.